A Translation Project Report Of Swan Song:An Odyssey (Chapter Four To Six)

This translation project report is based on chapters 4-6 of the source text Swan Song: An Odyssey,which is a novel with the background setting in modern era.It mainly introduces the protagonist Jessie who wants to get out of grief for losing her parents and partner.Introduced by her former lover Ben,Jessie boards the Amphitrite and begins a new life.The novel is mainly about Jessie’s experience along the journey.As the content is close to real life,the translator chooses Gutt’s Relevance Translation Theory as the guiding theory,aiming to find the optimal relevance,that is,the target language readers can get the best contextual effect through appropriate efforts.During the translation practice,the translator tries not to be restricted by the original text or individual words and grammar,and flexibly chooses from translation strategies of domestication and foreignization,and from literal translation and free translation.The translation should be fluent and smooth and conforms to the reading habits of the target language readers.As for the translation of dialogues,colloquial expression is used to make the translation easy to understand.According to the Relevance Translation Theory,the translator is committed to conveying the same or similar contextual effect as the original text in translation practice,and seeks for optimal relevance.The translator looks for the most appropriate words and sentences through considering and refining at the lexical,syntactic and textual levels,and tries to convert the content of the original text into authentic Chinese text.In terms of vocabulary,the translator mainly discusses reference translation,translation of cultureloaded words and the combination of literal translation and free translation;At the syntactic level,the translator’s translation cases are studied through the analysis of dialogue translation and the comparing between different sentence orders.The last part is the textual analysis.The author uses many domestication strategies in the translation process and discusses the translatability of lyrics and poems in form,hoping to present the target language readers with a translation that is faithful to the original text without losing the beauty of the original text structure.Through the translation practice report and the translation practice,the translator has a deeper understanding of the preciseness of translation and what translators should do.Real knowledge comes from practice,the accumulation of translation experience is vital.